Gloria Dotter Dibble, daughter of Floyd Dotter, a former resident of Pittsville and survivor of the Bataan Death March, with Lester Tenney.

Those of us 80 years old or older might have fading memories of the horrific events that happened on Dec. 7, 1941. Yes, today is the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. No, not a date to celebrate but an event that kicked off American entry into World War II. Calendars list it as a Remembrance Day.

I remember the day. Our family was visiting at Grandma's house and suddenly a radio musical program was interrupted with a report of the deadly attack. We country folks were confused and stunned by the news.

Many of the events of the war in the Pacific during the early 1940s were brought back through the inspiring presentation given by a Bataan Death March survivor, Lester Tenney, a 93-year-old World War II veteran who spoke at Marshfield High School and to a standing-room-only crowd of more than 600 at the Holiday Inn & Conference Center in Marshfield on May 29 this year.

It was of particular interest to the central Wisconsin community as five former Wood County veterans had been captives of the Japanese, of which two were involved in the Bataan Death March and survived along with Mr. Tenney.

Serving in the Pacific war zones at that time, and eventually taken as prisoners of war, included: Vic Karaliunas of Blenker, Robert Ryan of Wisconsin Rapids and Stanley Sommers of Marshfield. Clint Guelzow of Wisconsin Rapids and Floyd Dotter of Pittsville were captured in the Philippines and were involved and survived the Bataan Death March.

After his return to civilian life in 1946, Dotter never was able to return to his normal health and vitality he had when he enlisted on Sept. 24, 1941. The thick file his family allowed me to review contained numerous items of correspondence with Red Cross, hospitals, War Claims Commission, county, state and national military-related offices in pleading for disability compensation believed to be related to his 3½ years of captivity and suffering from dysentery, beriberi, malnutrition, depression, ulcers and nerve conditions.

Dotter's file contained seven post cards mailed from Japanese Imperial Army prison camps he had spent time in following the death march, which initially involved 12,000 American troops forced to walk nine days and nights with little food, water or rest. It has been stated that only 1,700 survived.

Eventually, Dotter and Tenney ended up working in coal mines.

Due to health reasons, Dotter was unable to hold a steady job. He suffered a stroke in 1976. He received numerous military medals for his heroic service but only partial disability until he died in 1994 at the age of 74.

I had known Mr. Dotter as a result of his oldest son George being in my agriculture class in 1956, and we would visit when I would stop at their farm to view his hog project. Floyd was a soft-spoken man who never talked about his military life.

Dotter's daughter, Gloria Dotter Dibble, said that if anyone, including his family, would ask him about being a prisoner of war he would respond, "That's a part of my life I'd like to forget." Gloria and her son Charles made it a point to personally meet Mr. Tenney and witness his presentation in Marshfield.

As a means of maintaining the memory of the Bataan Death March, military units and other sponsors in New Mexico established a memorial march in 1989 to mark a page in history of this military event.

In recent years, more than 5,000 people have taken part in the 26.2 mile or 14-mile memorial death march re-enactment at the White Sands Missile Range.

Anyone desiring to participate in the March 23, 2014, memorial march can obtain further details by emailing armybataanquestions@mail.mil. That can be a further step in continuing or developing more memories of a dark period in our military history.

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Local men survived Bataan Death March

Memories. Those of us 80 years old or older might have fading memories of the horrific events that happened on Dec. 7, 1941. Yes, today is the 72nd anniversary of the Japanese air attack on Pearl

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